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<\/p>\nAfter missing out on Dejounte Murray two summers ago, the New York Knicks are taking another shot.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The Knicks are among several teams who have expressed exploratory trade interest in Hawks guard Dejounte Murray, according to Hoopshype\u2019s Michael Scotto.<\/p>\n
\u201cMurray can\u2019t be traded until Jan. 9 after agreeing to a four-year, $120 million contract extension with the Hawks in July. However, given Atlanta\u2019s sluggish start to the season as a fringe Play-In team following Jalen Johnson\u2019s injury, nothing can be considered off the table for the Hawks in addition to usual trade suspects De\u2019Andre Hunter and Clint Capela,\u201d Scotto wrote.<\/p>\n
Murray is averaging 20 points, 5.4 assists, 4.3 rebounds and 1.5 steals while shooting a career-best 37.4% from long distance this season. His backcourt partnership with Trae Young has not panned out in Atlanta.<\/p>\n
Despite a head coaching change in the middle of last season, bringing in former Utah Jazz head coach Quinn Snyder, things haven\u2019t changed for the better. The Hawks currently sport a 12-15 record, good for the last play-in spot in the Eastern Conference if the season ends today.<\/p>\n
At 6-foot-5 with a 6\u201910\u201d wingspan, Murray is the type of rangy, athletic guard whom the Knicks envision next to Jalen Brunson in their backcourt.<\/p>\n
It cost three first-round picks for the Hawks to get Murray from the San Antonio Spurs in the summer of 2022. But that trade was consummated under a different regime. The Hawks now have former Knicks player Landry Fields as their general manager.<\/p>\n
The Knicks have eight tradable picks, including four with varying protections from different teams, plus the expiring salary of Evan Fournier and young prospects Immanuel Quickley and Quentin Grimes.<\/p>\n
Tom Thibodeau Defends Jalen Brunson from Criticisms<\/strong> \u201cThey\u2019re paid for their opinions, so it\u2019s just a bunch of chatter. The only thing that matters is what we think,\u201d Thibodeau said via New York Daily News\u2019 Kristian Winfield.<\/p>\n Brunson is in the midst of an All-Star season. The 6-foot-2 burly point guard is putting up career highs in scoring (25.3), rebounds (4.0), steals (1.1) and 3-point shooting (46%) while leading the Knicks to a 16-11 start.<\/p>\n \u201cAnyone who doubts him doesn\u2019t really know him,\u201d Thibodeau added, via The Athletic\u2019s Fred Katz.<\/p>\n Becky Hammon Doubles Down on Jalen Brunson\u2019s Take The 6-time WNBA All-Star stood by her take, doubling down on X (formerly Twitter) with a lengthy post to explain her analogy further.<\/p>\n On the December 21 episode of the \u201cNBA Today,\u201d Hammon said the Knicks don\u2019t have that \u201cdude,\u201d the \u201c1A star\u201d to hang with the Eastern Conference elite teams.<\/p>\n \u201cMy philosophy, if your best player is small, you\u2019re not winning [championships],\u201d Hammon said. \u201cI\u2019m saying this [about Brunson] as a small person. This is a game that [favors] the big and bold. It favors that god-given gift and I love Jalen Brunson but are you going to put him on the level of a 1A, are you putting him with Giannis [Antetokounmpo]?\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" After missing out on Dejounte Murray two summers ago, the New York Knicks are taking another shot. The Knicks are among several teams who have expressed exploratory… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":74032,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-74030","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nba"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/aweu.info\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74030","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/aweu.info\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/aweu.info\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aweu.info\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aweu.info\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=74030"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/aweu.info\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74030\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aweu.info\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/74032"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/aweu.info\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=74030"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aweu.info\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=74030"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aweu.info\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=74030"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nKnicks coach Tom Thibodeau shielded Brunson, his star point guard from two-time WNBA coach Becky Hammon\u2019s comment that he is not a \u201c1A star\u201d because he\u2019s \u201ctoo small.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nHammon did not back down from her comment despite a widespread backlash from Knicks fans.<\/p>\n